Proof
by Cara Mia
Summary: Direct sequel to "Chained": Skye walked away from him. Can Jax prove to her that their wild night together was not simply a result of too much alcohol and too little common sense?


Show: General Hospital  
  
Title: Proof  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own; I just worship.  
  
Summary: Sequel to "Bender", "My Sheila", "Falling" and "Chained". Skye just walked away without saying a word. How can Jax make her understand she'd always been a part of him?  
  
Acknowledgement: For Tai aka Tigerlily24 and all Sax fans still in existence.  
  
On one hand Jax couldn't believe that, after that admission, Skye had just walked out without a backward glance. On the other hand, the cynical, realist, practical side of him had known it would happen all along.  
  
But it was his general idealism, his hopeless romanticism that made him yank open the door seconds after she'd walked away and stalk after her.  
  
"Skye!" he called.  
  
She paused in her walk down the hallway and even glanced back. She seemed to take a strengthening breath before turning her back on him and continuing on her way.  
  
"Skye, wait!"  
  
By that time, Skye had rounded the corner and was hurrying up the stairs that led to the casino floor. She'd just cleared the final rung and was on the landing when Jax vaulted the final step and launched himself into her path.  
  
"Skye, please," he pleaded, grasping her arms.  
  
"Jax..." her tone was defeated, as if it took all her strength just to push his name past her lips. "I can't do this right now." She looked up, all the sincerity of her statement in her hazel eyes.  
  
"Why not? If we don't talk now, we'll never talk."  
  
He knew her all too well.  
  
She said nothing. She refused to look at him.  
  
"Skye..." he practically whimpered.  
  
She shook her head. "Why are you doing this to me, Jax?" she asked softly, broken. "Why do you always do this to me?" a thread of defiance had woven itself into her voice. She looked up again and there was nothing sorrowful in her gaze. Jax braced himself for what he felt was going to be an explosion of bravado and temper. Skye surprised him with her reasonable tone. "I'm always going to be weak when it comes to you," it was not just reasonable but matter-of-fact. It stung more than he'd expected it to. "But I can't... I won't let you get under my skin... I can't give myself hope, because I'll never be good enough for you, Jax, I'll never live up to the lofty expectations you have of those you love, and I won't put myself through that again." Skye looked up, her eyes and the following words spearing his heart: "You eviscerated me, Jax, and it was more than enough to last a lifetime."  
  
Jax's eyes widened at her admission. "Eviscerated you?" he repeated numbly.  
  
"Yes," Skye continued dully. "You emptied my body of all its important contents. You treated me like shit, like I wasn't fit to breathe the same air as you. You sucked the very life from me. I died, Jax."  
  
Jax was stunned. He didn't know what to say. The "I'm sorry," that tumbled from his lips sounded woefully inadequate to his ears.  
  
"I'm sorry, too. I'm sorry that I deluded myself into thinking that I could love Luke and be nothing but your friend. I'm sorry that I'm so fucking unstable I can't keep a promise. I'm sorry that I fell off the wagon. But I won't be sorry again and I sure as hell won't be stupid, I won't sacrifice myself just because you think that you want me again, Jax." A severe tension headache was threatening to flare into existence behind her eyelids.  
  
"How can you think that?!"  
  
"How can I not think that, Jax? The second I fucked up, you tossed me out on my ass like yesterday's garbage!"  
  
"I never did that to you!" Jax defended himself, very much on the back foot.  
  
Skye's eyes narrowed, the memory of her promise to herself in the bathroom making her spine stiffen. "Don't lie! Have you forgotten your not-so-dead-ex-model girlfried Brenda?!" there was no mistaking the venom in her voice.  
  
Now that her temper had flared just as he'd expected, he found himself wishing for the calm, reasonable, albeit cold Skye from a few minutes ago.  
  
"Nothing to say?" she asked, her voice like tempered steel. "It's daylight, Jax. Don't feel like you have to placate me with pretty words and admissions. Leave me in peace so I can lick my wounds in private."  
  
She moved to walk around him and off the boat, but Jax's hand on her arm stopped her. "I have plenty to say, you just won't give me a chance. I meant what I said this morning, Skye. I'm falling... hell, maybe I've already landed flat on my ass, but I'm telling you the truth. I've hurt you, and I'm sorry, but I will spend the rest of my life trying to make it up to you. Not today, maybe not tomorrow, but some day, Skye, I'll show you that I'm the one who doesn't deserve you."  
  
His words were so heated, yet uttered so softly; they sent a shiver down her spine. They stood nose to nose, with Jax's head dipped towards her. His blue eyes were guileless and dead serious. Taking a deep breath, Skye shrugged away from him and flipped her beautiful auburn hair over her shoulder. She regarded him silently before walking away.  
  
Before exiting the card-room, she glanced back to see Jax staring intently after her. In a move that she wouldn't for a while know whether to regret or rejoice, she tossed to him, "Prove it."  
  
A devilish grin spread across his face and she knew the game was on.  
  
He finally wore her down eight months later....  
  
THE END  
  
a/n: I love Skye, don't you? (at least I love her when she isn't deviously plotting against one of my other favourite female characters Alexis.) Review to tell me what you thought about the entire series.  
  
Cara 


End file.
